transcending Archives

Ordinary People’s Mystical Experiences – a review of ‘Mystical Interludes II’ by Emily Rodavich

February 18, 2019

‘Mystical Interludes II’, collected and edited by Emily Rodavich, takes us into the world of ordinary people’s mystical experiences. Read on!

A mystical interlude, which resonates in the heart, can remind us of our spirituality and our connectedness to each other. This is why it is meaningful to take heed.

from Mystical Interludes II by Emily Rodavich

You might sense a theme emerging in Quiet Writing lately.

Independently, books have come to me that focus on mystical experiences. These books arrived in various ways and means, all dealing with people having extraordinary experiences. It was quite surprising. Coincidence? I think not.

These mystical experiences are called different things: mystical interludes or NOTEs, Non-ordinary Transcendent Experiences. Some involve a specific life-changing moment like a Near Death Experience. Others are a kind of synchronicity or meaningful coincidence, involving signs or symbols. Sometimes they are everyday occurrences with enormous significance beyond the moment. They could be events that connect over the decades. Or an experience that manifests through increased sensitivity of some kind.

It was clearly time for me to look closely into this realm of reality and reflect on my personal experience of the mystical. For it is something that just about everyone experiences and encounters if we pay attention. Often, it’s an occurrence that yields rich rewards of transformation and growth. This is especially the case if we honour the experience, feel able to talk about it and share it more publicly with others.

Reading Mystical Interludes II

I was delighted to have the opportunity to read Mystical Interludes II by Emily Rodavich to enrich my sense of ordinary people’s stories of the mystical. The backstory of this book is fascinating. Emily Rodavich wrote her first Mystical Interludes: An Ordinary Person’s Extraordinary Experiences as a memoir. Covering a series of lifetime mystical interludes, Emily seeks to make sense of encounter after encounter. These experiences include a near-death experience at 18. With the door opening to this aspect of experience, it seemed to usher in other spiritual experiences.

Emily reflects on her mystical interludes with this life wisdom:

I’ve come to realize that those powerful experiences have been extraordinary gifts that should be shared rather than closeted. It’s my hunch that the world is full of ordinary people like myself who have been surprised by similar incidents. It’s time we come forward and share them with each other and the world around us.

Mystical Interludes

So to put her weight behind this, Emily issued an invitation at the end of her memoir. She invited people who experienced a mystical interlude to submit a description of it for a new book. Mystical Interludes II is a collection of stories that came forward from ordinary people from that invitation and in other ways.

Emily speaking at a book talk

Ordinary people’s extraordinary stories

The quality that I love most about Emily’s Mystical Interludes II is that it is very much ordinary people telling extraordinary stories. You sense as you read that each author is continuing to make sense of what happened as they write. The overwhelming feeling is of everyone being right back in that moment even if it was many years ago. The details are sharp. It’s as if time stands still in the moment and everything is super-charged. The senses are activated in the story and in the telling.

Nancy Aloi in ‘Love from Beyond the Veil‘ describes a series of encounters defined by intense smells including tobacco and freshly baked bread. Smells that she connects with her late father, his spirit seemingly shepherds her through a difficult time.

Canela Michelle Meyers describes the expansive, light feeling of a Near Death Experience in her story, ‘Into the Blue’. The moments when Canela is ice-skating before she has a catastrophic fall are told in crystal clear detail. It’s as if the whole day and series of events are frozen in time.

Time after time, I marvelled at being in this house, in this hospital, in this room, on this street – in ordinary places with ordinary people having extraordinary things happen to them.

Overwhelming openness to experience

Each author reflects on these extraordinary experiences as a gift. They provide insights and learning that open the heart. Even when the experience was difficult or hard to understand, it resulted in a spirit of being more open.

Beverley Golden shares an “almost unexplainable experience with a past-life regression” in her story, ‘Answers from Another Place and Time.’ She concludes:

One thing I do know is that the experience has kept me open and willing to receive answers to questions, wherever they come from.

These ordinary people share conclusions from all kinds of extraordinary experiences. Conclusions about loved ones always being with us, living past lives, life beyond death and the power of mystical signposts to bring people together over time and circumstance. Each story has the effect of opening up your own experience and insight in the telling.

As Emily says in the introduction:

Just as each of us is an original one-of-a-kind being, each story is a unique, authentic revelation. The common thread throughout these narratives is that they are real. That reality is evidenced by their influences on their writers’ lives.

Extraordinary encounters of ordinary people

The authors are a rich mix of people. They include retirees, authors, physicians, integrative health practitioners, neighbours, teachers, artists, intuitives, psychologists, musicians. Authors of Quiet Writing Wholehearted Stories are contributors to this volume including Penelope Love and Maura McCarley Torkildson. Most of the authors I don’t know and some authors choose to remain anonymous.

This broad range of contributing authors reinforces the message that many people experience mystical interludes. I reflected on my own mystical interludes whilst reading this book. When reading Nicole Gruel’s book, I had an encounter experience around rainbows, a recurring symbol in my life. It’s as if in the reading of such books, our awareness is raised. We review the mystical experiences in our lives. Or they start to occur!

Suzanne Giesemann echoes this in her Foreword:

I know from my own research that simply by reading other people’s other-worldly experiences, we are more likely to experience such events ourselves.

The gathering of books and connections coming together on this topic in my life might be my own Mystical Interludes story! A whole series of personal connections has intersected during this past month or so of reading about mystical interludes. Chance and random encounters between people connected around mystical experiences. New connections made like it’s a web that extends between us. It has been an extraordinary light-filled time.

Connecting with Mystical Interludes

This is the real power and spirit of Mystical Interludes II and Emily’s collection of stories. The groundswell of interest in transcendent experiences is made richer by these detailed accounts of ordinary lives suddenly taking on another form.

We know from Emily’s gathering of these 39 stories, as well as Nicole Gruel’s research, that many people have such experiences but they may not talk about them. The stigma and the feeling of not being believed means many people have stayed quiet. Clearly, as these stories show, the immediacy and impact of these experiences does not fade with time. The retelling of them gives life and energy to the spirit of the experience.

I encourage you to read Mystical Interludes II to embolden yourself to think about such experiences in your life. And to share them with others. You might find yourself reflecting on your mystical experiences – past or present – as I have. If you have had a mystical interlude of your own, you might consider contributing your story to the forthcoming Mystical Interludes III.

Emily sharing her experiences via a book talk

Leadership in telling stories

The leadership of Emily Rodavich in telling her story as a role model and inviting and supporting others to tell their stories is powerful. It would be easy for these ordinary people to shy away from telling their stories. But in Emily’s very wise and inspired hands, these stories are dusted off, shaped and gathered together into a volume that speaks volumes about the nature of mystical experiences.

Emily’s book opens with a wonderful quote from Anthony de Mello:

Story-telling to shed light and share truth is what this book is all about. These are quiet stories, gently told, as they narrate momentous happenings. It is wonderful that more authors are choosing to write and share their mystical interludes story. It’s exciting too that Emily has stepped up to provide leadership to gather, honour and help voice the experiences of others.

I feel indebted to Emily and to all the authors for taking the time to share their stories in such detail, often from hidden or long ago places. I’m sure many readers will feel this same sense of respect and honour in witnessing these long-held stories of the heart and spirit. I encourage you to also witness these stories, their brave telling and what they might teach us about ourselves and our place in the world of spirit and the mystical.

Book Giveaway

I’m hosting a giveaway of Mystical Interludes II on Instagram and Facebook! Let’s celebrate ordinary people’s mystical interludes in the light of the Virgo Full Moon!

Working together with Emily Rodavich and Citrine Publishing, we have one printed copy of Mystical Interludes II to give away, sent to you anywhere in the world.

So make sure you are following me on Instagram and/or Facebook and follow the instructions to win this book in my posts on Tuesday 19 February AEDT. Good luck!

Thought pieces + footnotes

About Emily Rodavich

Emily Rodavich, retired English teacher, mother of three and grandmother of four, had a near death experience at age eighteen. That extraordinary event opened the door to a lifetime of spiritual happenings. Unable to share those mystical experiences with most friends or family for fear they’d think her “strange,” she kept them to herself. In recent years, realizing the ways those various mystical happenings had shaped her concept of reality and her character, she wrote her memoir, Mystical Interludes: An Ordinary Person’s Extraordinary Experiences, which chronicles ten of her stunning interludes. Believing that everybody experiences mystical interludes to some degree, she invited readers to submit their stories for publication in this, her second book, Mystical Interludes II: A Collection of Extraordinary People’s Extraordinary Experiences.

At the end of her speaking engagements Emily found that people wanted to hang out and talk about their experiences. The result was the formation of the Mystical Interludes Discussion Group (MIDG) starting with eight members who met in her home for the first time in March 2017. Today the group of fifty members rents space for their monthly meetings. Emily’s mission is to do her part to support our collective spiritual evolution by bringing personal mystical events out of shadow into the light. In so doing, she foresees a day when mystical interludes will be accepted as normal human events, rather than strange or weird occurrences.

Connect with Emily by visiting the Mystical Interludes website. To express your intention to write for the next edition, click on “Share Your Experience”.

Reading Mystical Interludes II

You can use the below Amazon affiliate links to access and read Mystical Interludes II if you choose with no additional cost to you. I receive a small commission to help keep Quiet Writing efforts, book reviews and giveaways flourishing.

For Amazon.com.au:

Mystical Interludes II: Kindle

Mystical Interludes II: Paperback

For Amazon.com:

Mystical Interludes II: Kindle

Mystical Interludes II: Paperback

For Amazon UK:

Mystical Interludes II: Kindle

Mystical Interludes II: Paperback

Image 2, 5 & 7 provided by Emily Rodavich and used with permission and thanks.

Image 3 via Pexels.com and used with permission and thanks.

You might also enjoy:

Non-ordinary transcendent experiences: a review of ‘The Power of Notes’ by Nicole Gruel PhD

Intuition: how to understand and master it – a review of ‘The Inner Tree’ by Maura McCarley Torkildson

The journey to write here: my wholehearted story

When the inner voice calls, and calls again – my journey to wholehearted living

Tackling trauma and “not enough” with empathy and vision – a wholehearted story

Personality Stories

Keep in touch + read the books that shaped my story

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You will receive the ebook straight away! Plus you’ll receive monthly Beach Notes with updates and inspiring resources from Quiet Writing. This includes writing, personality type, coaching, creativity, tarot, productivity and ways to express your unique voice in the world.

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community. Look forward to connecting with you and inspiring your wholehearted story!

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Non-Ordinary Transcendent Experiences – a review of ‘The Power of NOTEs’ by Nicole Gruel, PhD

January 18, 2019

Want to learn more about Non-Ordinary Transcendent Experiences? ‘The Power of NOTEs’ will help you understand and work with them as a source for transformation. Read on!

NOTEs are an important aspect of the human experience that help point towards and awaken the desire, curiosity, and courage to explore more of what life could be.

from The Power of NOTEs by Nicole Gruel PhD

Nicole Gruel PhD

Have you ever experienced something that felt out of the ordinary, super-charged or transcendent, that changed your life in some key way?

Many of us have, yet it’s an area of human experience we tend not to talk about. Often this is because we don’t quite understand what happened. We keep quiet, often for years, as we try to make sense of it and what it meant. It’s frequently a solitary, and sometimes, painful journey. But more people are beginning to talk about these non-ordinary transcendent experiences however they manifest. They are emerging as sources of positive transformation and personal power if we pay attention, talk about them and work through them.

Dr Nicole Gruel’s new book, ‘The Power of NOTEs: How Non-Ordinary Transcendent Experiences Transform the Way We Live, Love and Lead‘ is an important, research-based contribution to the field of spiritual psychology and transformation.

After a near-death experience and the sudden loss of family members, Nicole found herself deep in the realm of non-ordinary transcendent experiences. In particular, she learnt their power for positive change.

Nicole has gone on to explore NOTEs deeply including via PhD studies. Her Doctoral Dissertation focused on “AfterNOTEs: Non-Ordinary Transcendent Experiences and their Aftereffects Through Jung’s Topology”. This involved interviewing people who had experienced NOTES and working through the psychological dimensions of their response. This deep qualitative and quantitative research, combined with personal experience and NOTEs community connection, provides the rich source material that this excellent, practical book is woven around.

So what are NOTEs?

A non-ordinary transcendent experience is a rare and unfamiliar event that takes you beyond your regular understanding of yourself and the world.

from The Power of NOTES

An acronym created by transpersonal psychologist William Braud, ‘NOTE’ captures experiences at the intersection of “paranormal research, exceptional human experiences, and transpersonal psychology.” (p3). Well-known examples include near-death experiences and paranormal encounters, but the scope of NOTEs is much wider and more inclusive than this.

Nicole explains in the opening chapter that there are over 500 potential NOTEs that can be grouped into nine categories such as Death-related experiences, Encounter experiences and Mystical experiences. Each category of NOTEs is described helping the reader to begin to connect with their own personal database of experiences.

What is the power of NOTEs?

The power of NOTEs is realising their potential for our growth and insight. Nicole explains the ability of NOTEs to take us out of ourselves and our habitual ways of being:

For many experiencers, tasting our core self is the greatest gift of a NOTE. (p7)

It is a type of disruption forcing our attention in new ways and often taking some time to integrate. This is often because societal and cultural contexts make it hard for us to talk about them. Nicole explores this with examples from the lives of experiencers. She shows too that NOTEs offer wisdom and insight that has implications beyond the individual.

Greater wisdom calls for us to access the insights of NOTEs as best we can, for these experiences provide a necessary lens into other ways of seeing and being in the world. (p9)

Moreover, research shows that when people share NOTEs, it has many benefits for individual wellbeing such as reducing stress. Nicole has made it her mission to help people share and understand NOTEs as part of the human and collective experience.

The landscape of NOTEs

I had the pleasure of attending the online launch of Nicole’s book recently where we had a virtual tour through the book. We also heard from leaders and writers in the NOTEs community. These experiences, alongside reading the book, have helped me better understand the landscape of NOTEs.

The book explores NOTEs from all perspectives including the dark and light sides of being an experiencer as well as from the viewpoint of neuroscience. Nicole scopes neuroscience perspectives and evidence that shows we are hard-wired to experience NOTEs.

A fellow personality type practitioner, Nicole also looks through the personality lens at the gifts of NOTEs:

NOTEs are powerful because they put us on the fast track toward a fuller expression of who we most naturally and uniquely are.

Research shows that the specific content of a near-death experience, its impact and significance is influenced by people’s personal psychology.

Connecting NOTEs experiences with Jung’s eight psychological types, Nicole explores eight gifts or transcendent dimensions of personality using James Graham Johnston’s model of the Gift’s Compass™. For example, Introverted Thinking (Ti) connects with The Conceptual Gift.

Using this lens of personality, Nicole explains that:

Experiencer stories show that the more the natural or true self is made available through NOTEs, the more a person’s dominant personality preferences take on transcendent aspects. (p40)

This ground-breaking perspective, informed by conversations with NOTEs experiencers, helps provide psychological insights into these transcendent events.

Working and transforming with NOTEs

The second half of the book explores NOTEs as clues to our natural flow states; ways to work with NOTEs during and beyond experiences; and how NOTEs can be a transformative power in how we live, love and lead.

Each chapter provides practical tips and practices for working with NOTEs as a transformative power source. Nicole shows how we can create a NOTEs biography and Well-being Wheel, with these tools based on recent, pioneering research and experiences of people actively working on integrating NOTEs into life stories. The importance of validating and appropriately sharing NOTEs is demonstrated in a self-leadership framework:

Ultimately, no one is a better coach and guide for you than you. (p62)

The power of love and legacy are keys to the self-leadership experience of working with NOTEs in a personally transformative way.

The experience of reading The Power of NOTEs

I encourage you to read The Power of NOTEs. It is beautifully and clearly written, full of lived and researched wisdom. As Katie Mottram puts it so well in her foreword:

This is not just a book; Nicole has gifted you an experience.

I couldn’t agree more. As if to highlight this, I had my own transcendent experience during my reading of the book.

I realised my experiences of NOTEs are mostly in the Encounter experiences category: a kind of synchronicity related to “something wondrous or awesome, like a spectacular view or moving music...” Many years ago, I had a series of astounding synchronistic events with rainbows at a peak time of change and transformation. They had a profound effect on me as rainbow after rainbow connected in an ongoing narrative.

I started Nicole’s book in the early morning hours of a sleepless night two days away from Christmas, the first anniversary of my mother’s death. A few hours later, still restless, I got up early and headed out to the deck. There I was greeted by the most stunning rainbow in the sky. Rainbows are something I connect with my mother and also my father. I chose songs and poems with the symbolism of rainbows for both their funerals as a way of continuing to connect with them.

My experience of reading the book, reflecting on my own NOTEs symbolism, seemed to open up this connection. It would have been so easy to miss this rainbow.

Connecting with the power of NOTEs

Reading this book will help you connect with the power of NOTEs in your life. As the ‘Praise’ upfront in the book, the Foreword and the online book launch all show, there is a groundswell of research, interest and support in the area of non-ordinary transcendent experiences.

Organisations such as the International Spiritual Emergence Network (ISEN), American Center for the Integration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences (ACISTE), the International Association for Near Death Studies (IANDS) and the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF) provide a touchpoint for experiences and research around them. You can find further links and information here.

More authors are stepping up to write their stories and gather, honour and structure the experiences of others as Nicole has done. My next book review (coming week of 11 February) is of Mystical Interludes II – a Collection of Ordinary People’s Mystical Experiences, collected and edited by Emily Rodavich. The Power of NOTES and Mystical Interludes II came to me in a synchronistic way, at the same time from different connections but covering similar terrain.

Read Nicole Gruel’s book to recognise, honour and structure such experiences in your life and also in the lives of those you love. If you have had a NOTE, this book can help others share in and understand your experience. Likewise, if you think someone you know may have experienced a NOTE, this book is a useful way to open the conversation or quietly support them. For counsellors, coaches and other professional people, this is an important resource to open up thoughts about spiritually transformative experiences in the context of practice.

And as I finish writing, I hear the sounds of the children next door playing under the water sprinkler in the Sydney midsummer heat. One excitedly shouts: “There’s a rainbow!”

Book Giveaway

I’m hosting a giveaway for the Full Moon + Blood Moon/total Lunar eclipse (21 January Southern Hemisphere time) on Instagram to celebrate the launch of ‘The Power of NOTEs’.

As Tanishka, the Moon Woman shares:

this full moon eclipse is a wonderful portal to invoke the energies of Kali Ma, the archetypal dark mother who helps us own our shadow & pray for a complete transformation – both personally & for the collective.

It seems so appropriate! I have two signed copies of Nicole Gruel’s ‘The Power of NOTEs‘ to give away. So there’s a chance for two lucky winners to win a copy, sent to you anywhere in the world.

So make sure you are following me on Instagram and follow the instructions on Monday 21 January AEDT. Good luck!

Thought pieces + footnotes

Dr Nicole Gruel is an author, speaker and transformational coach. Descendant from a long line of samurai, she has spent over two decades exploring human potential. You can connect with her at DrNicoleGruel.com.

The Power of NOTES was provided as a review copy by the author in return for a fair review. I am grateful to Dr Nicole Gruel for sharing this book with me.

To purchase, you can use the below Amazon affiliate links if you choose. There is no additional cost to you. I receive a small commission to help keep Quiet Writing efforts, book reviews and giveaways flourishing.

For Amazon.com.au:

The Power of NOTEs: Non-Ordinary Transcendent Experiences Transforming the Way We Live, Love, and Lead

For Amazon.com:

<br />

You can also get a signed copy here direct from Nicole.

Image 1 (feature image), 2 & 5 provided by Nicole Gruel and used with permission and thanks.

You might also enjoy:

Intuition: how to understand and master it – a review of ‘The Inner Tree’ by Maura McCarley Torkildson

“You are the authority on you”: a review of Danielle LaPorte’s White Hot Truth

Being ‘Fierce on the Page’ – a book review

Being a vessel – or working with introverted intuition

36 Books that Shaped my Story – Reading as Creative Influence

When the inner voice calls, and calls again – my journey to wholehearted livings

How to read for more creativity, productivity and pleasure

Keep in touch + read the books that shaped my story

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community. Look forward to connecting with you and inspiring your wholehearted story!

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Joy in travel and seeing new landscapes – a photo essay

January 3, 2019

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

Joy and travel align so beautifully! This post explores how the joy of travel and new landscapes helped refresh my senses and provide new perspectives.

Joy as my Word of the Year in 2018

Joy was my Word of the Year for 2018. I’m reflecting on my experience of JOY last year in a series of posts here as a way of rounding off the year and stepping into 2019.

I’ve realised that each quarter of the year delivered a new lesson and experience about finding joy:

alongside deep grief
and resilience in challenging times
in travel and being away from home (this post)
in creative work and my calling (to come soon)

I hope you find these reflections valuable for your own journeys with joy, grief, resilience, creativity, travel and wholehearted self-leadership. And I look forward to your thoughts and experiences too on these issues and feelings.

Finding joy in travel

It’s pretty well nearly always joyful to set off on an anticipated overseas trip. But this one was so long in coming, it felt extra joyful.

We were just about to go overseas when my mother was diagnosed with cancer and so of course, we cancelled that holiday. In all, we cancelled six holidays over 18 months as we dealt with the challenges of late 2016 into early 2018 and focused on supporting loved family members.

Finally in the second half of the year, we set off overseas for a trip to Europe and the UK. We travelled first to Singapore and that evening after arriving, we sat in our favourite hotel with a drink relaxing and I felt quiet tears of joy.

It meant things were okay and settled down now. It was a desperately needed change of scenery, an opportunity to relax and see new places, and fulfil a dream of going on a river cruise down the Rhine. We also planned to visit towns in Germany where my ancestors departed from to travel to Australia, to catch up with online friends I hadn’t met in person, and to connect again with family and friends overseas. It was the most joyful of times.

Joy and travel revisited

Just as absence makes the heart grow fonder, so the inability to travel made me yearn for new landscapes. Until I could travel again, I would follow other’s journeys with such wanderlust, eager to also embrace travel as we had planned for this time of our life. This whole experience helped me to take nothing for granted. After the challenges of the previous months, I immersed myself in every new place and experience so in the moment.

In Singapore, we love the orchids and visited the National Orchid Gardens and the Gardens by the Bay as well as the zoo. We indulged our senses in every way in the humidity of Singapore, surrounded by flowers and animals. It was so refreshing for my jaded sensibilities.

We then headed to Frankfurt as a base for exploring Germany and connecting with ancestral places. I caught up with my friend Kerstin Pilz of Write Your Journey. First connecting online, we had met face to face in my village in February in 2018, then found out we were both flying into Frankfurt, from Vietnam and Australia, within the same 24 hour period. What synchronicity! It was such a joy to connect and have lunch in the Römerberg Square in Kerstin’s home-town. Catching face to face with online friends was a special feature of this journey creating such treasured moments I cherish.

Joy, travel and family history

A key driving factor in our holiday planning was heading to see the places in Germany where my ancestors left from to travel to Australia. Much of my family is from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, but my paternal grandmother’s grandparents came from Germany. So I was so very keen to see the places they lived in and where they once walked and lived.

We visited Würzburg, Wertheim and Eichel on the outskirts of Wertheim where they lived. I went to the church where my great, great, great grandfather Johann (Jakob) Leonhard Roos was baptised in 1826. My ancestors were vineyard workers in this region of Germany and then came to work on Henry John Lindeman’s vineyards in the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney. I could feel their ancestral presence everywhere in this region of Germany and felt so much at home.

The joy of river cruising

The central part of our trip was a river cruise from Amsterdam to Basel. We’d never been on a cruise of any kind and thought a river cruise would be the best way to commence our cruising experience.

It was sublime. From the moment we stepped on, we enjoyed every moment. A combination of the pleasures of onboard experiences with onshore excursions made for such a pleasurable journey. Once you are aboard, you unpack your bag and just kick back for the week and watch the world go by.

We had also never engaged with more organised travel with a structured itinerary and tour guides. Again, we enjoyed this as it meant we didn’t have to navigate and could learn from guides with local knowledge. You could choose to opt out of onshore excursions and stay on the boat often cruising to the next stop. This was an occasional introverted treat when all the interaction and input got too much.

Travelling by river means seeing so much you cannot see any other way. A highlight was the mid Rhine River lined with castles and vineyards, the Lorelei a central feature we snaked through. We sat atop the vessel as we wove our way through, seeing castle and after castle and wondering how such immense structures were able to be built.

We visited cities and towns along the length of the Rhine River, hearing of their history and traditions. A broad-brush approach perhaps but a fabulous way to get a sense of place and identify where we to return to with more time to explore. We especially loved Colmar, Strasbourg, Rüdesheim, Cologne and Koblenz. A visit to the underground Maginot Line in France near the German border was an incredible insight into the lengths taken to defend against the potential reoccurrence of conflict after World War I. Our hosts went to every length to make sure each port provided opportunities to taste the unique flavour and history of each place we visited.

And then to Vietnam

Shortly after we returned home, I headed off for a solo trip to Hoi An, Vietnam for a yoga and writing retreat with Kerstin Pilz. It was my first solo trip overseas at 57 which caused much mirth in our family. But it was truly great to set off alone for a week of writing and yoga in beautiful Hoi An, a place I’d long wanted to visit. Having my trusted friend Kerstin, a local Hoi An resident, leading and shaping the retreat meant I felt well looked after and knew my needs would be supported.

They were supported and so much more. I’ve written a full review of the retreat here. Following on from time away in Europe and the UK, it was all about seeing with fresh eyes in every respect. The week was pivotal in getting back to both yoga and writing practices after my time away. I made enduring friendships and my senses were refreshed and revitalised, bringing a deep joy after an at times challenging year.

Having stretched both my writing and yoga muscles and revitalised my senses in every way, the scene was set for the last quarter of the year and experiencing joy in my calling and new work in the world.

Photo by Nigel Rowles

Find Your Word process + tools

First though, some information on the process and tools that can help you. If you have never worked on a Word of the Year, it’s a powerful process. Susannah Conway has a fabulous free Word of the Year ecourse available each year that I often dive into. It works really well alongside the Unravel Your Year process and free workbook that Susannah also creates and generously shares each year. I’ve been working through both processes to review my year and plan for the next one since 2014.

I credit these practices with contributing to deep realisations about where I was stuck and needed to make change. For the first few years, I found I was writing the same goals each year and not achieving them. This was mostly about writing books and making space for creativity in my life. Each year was swallowed up by work and my creative goals kept getting lost.

In 2016, I started doing things differently. I began to make my transition. Now at the end of 2018, I am two years in to my change journey and life is very different. It’s much more in line with the dreams and visions I had way back in 2014!

Amy Palko also offers My Word Goddess Readings with suggestions for your word for the year linked to a Goddess of the Year. Also a practice I have invested in for a few years now, it provides valuable intuitive insights and suggestions for words that might help drive your year’s energy positively.

You might also enjoy:

Joy and resilience in challenging times

Joy and grief: the paradox and wisdom of finding joy alongside deep grief

Finding JOY in the everyday – reflections on my Word of the Year for 2018

Joy – 18 inspiring quotes on enjoying what you do and love

Writing retreat in Hoi An review + photo essay – seeing with fresh eyes

Grief and pain can be our most important teachers – a wholehearted story

Keep in touch + read the books that shaped my story

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community. Look forward to connecting with you and inspiring your wholehearted story!

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Opening your heart to inspiration of a different kind

May 7, 2018

In each loss, there is a gain as in every gain there is a loss. And with each ending comes a new beginning.

Shao Lin via The Art of Life Tarot – Eight of Cups

A Quiet Writing deep-dive Tarot Narrative each Monday to share intuitive guidance, wisdom and insights from aligned books – for the week and anytime…

This week: opening your heart to inspiration of a different kind

Theme for the week beginning 7 May

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #19 Design from patterns to details

We’ve hard this card before not so long ago! Last time it reminded us of the value of strategy and the higher order of connections. This week the message is similar but with a particular focus on moving through and not letting details get the better of us. We are reminded to look at ideas, patterns and getting our ideas and feelings out without getting stuck.

Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook is:

Are you concentrating too much on the details whilst missing the bigger picture, or vice versa?

Today’s narrative, led by this theme card, encourages us to step back a little and see the whole. Looking at patterns rather than flaws or minor issues will serve us well at this time.

It’s about being positive and macro focused rather than micro. We are encouraged to reflect on how working at a higher order of life design can serve us and others well now.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 7 May

Tarot Narrative:

Moving on from the tyranny of details, you open your heart to inspiration of a different kind. You want to take your ideas forward but get stuck on the pieces which breaks your movement. So focus on higher order things: patterns and designing from a higher place. With spirit as your guide, work on manifesting your ideas in form and flow without obsessing about every small thing. It will all find its place.

Cards: Daughter (Page) of Swords and Eight of Cups from The Wild Unknown and #40 Co-create from Wisdom of the Oracle.

Book notes:

It is the same with our minds and hearts. For our very self is the one window we have into this life. And so often, we suffer the mood of a dirty window, believing the brilliant world gray.

Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening (for May 7)

Mark Nepo reminds us for today’s reading in ‘The Book of Awakening’ of ‘The Ordinary Art’. This is about keeping our minds clear and not seeing life through a dirty lens. One way of keeping things murky is to get caught up on the detail – the one piece of dirt on an otherwise clear window, the one thing that is not right. So much can get lost in obsessing about detail before you even make a start or begin opening your heart.

Mark Nepo goes on to say:

Perhaps the purpose of authentic relationship is to help each other keep our minds and hearts clear. Perhaps inner work is the ordinary art of window washing, so that the day is fully the day.

Opening your heart

The Page of Swords can often represent “a great idea with no outlet” according to Jessa Crispin in The Creative Tarot. It can remind us that it’s “time to grow up and see a project through to completion for a change.”

Do you have a project that never seems to get going or even make it through to the draft stage? Do you close your heart down before you even start as the details cloud over you?

This reading starts with the Page of Swords as a weather report card telling us to get on with our work or relationships. Too much focus on the detail and the tyranny of perfection can stop us from even starting work or communicating.

One way of opening your heart is embracing the overall pattern of your work rather than obsessing with the details. Just as Mark Nepo reminds us, seeing our work or loved ones through a dirty lens is just not going to be helpful.

Inspiration of a different kind

The Eight of Cups reminds us to let go of what doesn’t serve us. It might be painful but letting go and leaving things behind can be positive. We might, for example, let go of an obsession with detail to finally get our work done. Walking on the beach, we might see the one stone or shell that speaks to us instead of being overwhelmed by many. We might let go of a way of thinking, a person, a job or an attitude that stops us achieving higher order goals like love, creativity or connection.

The Wisdom of the Oracle card Co-create also reinforces this message by encouraging us to see our life as art co-created with spirit:

Connections of the heart serve to inspire you, opening you up to new ideas you would never have had on your own.

This Tarot Narrative work I do is an example of that. I never know what these weekly posts will focus on until I do this intuitive work in partnership with spirit. It is a unique practice of mystery and manifestation that is larger than me. The tarot and oracle cards are tools for me to connect with my intuition. For this week and beyond, focusing on higher-order patterns and a clear view of my work and relationships will serve me well. And I share this in a spirit of co-creation with you.

Details, endings and beginnings

As the Art of Life Tarot Eight of Cups reminds us, endings and beginnings and losses and gains are often intertwined. Especially when big life transitions or events happen, it’s easy to lose the larger picture in the details. We feel hurt by small things that feel magnified. It’s easy to dwell on these upsets. We are encouraged to see the cyclical nature of life and to move beyond getting stuck through an obsession with detail.

Working with our intuition, seeing the bigger picture, working with patterns, choosing to see through a clean window can help us. It is as if we need to erase the details that can trip us up or hold us back. Defining ourselves or others by small events or a few words said can be limiting. Just as not developing the unique creative ideas that come to us because of a fear of not achieving our ideal will limit our productivity.

“Done is better than perfect” is a maxim I have embraced more this year. There is no point having such high expectations of ourselves or our work that nothing gets started. Or ever sees the light of day.

It’s a great week for opening our hearts to inspiration of a different kind.

How are we embracing our creative ideas rather than stifling them?
Where are we be generous in our relationships rather than fault-finding?
What have we learnt about the ways we stop ourselves from moving and how can we action this?
How can we find a higher order pattern to work from rather than getting stuck on details?
What can we do to invite inspiration in and take it through to completion?
Where can we work in partnership with intuition and spirit and the spirit of others to further our work and relationships?

Walking away from practices that no longer serve us can help us feel more inspired. Take some time to journal on how you can lift your eyes to see the positives without the details becoming a barrier this week.

Love to hear your thoughts!

I’d love to how you are working from design and a different kind of inspiration this week.

All best wishes for this week of seeing the big picture to guide us in moving forward.

May you find inspiration in opening your heart and seeing new beginnings. And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

You can work with me to help tap into that inner wisdom and magic guidance. Free 30-45 minute coaching consults chats are available so please get in touch at terri@quietwriting.com to talk further. I’d love to be a guide alongside to help you conduct creativity and magic with spirit and heart in your own unique way.

You can download my free 94-page ebook on the 36 Books that Shaped my Story – just sign up with your email address in the box to the right or below. You will also receive updates from Quiet Writing and its passions. This includes personality type, coaching, creativity, writing, tarot and other connections to help express your unique voice in the world.

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

Weathering seasons of life with skill and balance

April 30, 2018

Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.

Oscar Wilde via The Art of Life Tarot – Four of Pentacles

A Quiet Writing deep-dive Tarot Narrative each Monday to share intuitive guidance, wisdom and insights from aligned books – for the week and anytime…

This week: weathering the seasons of life with skill and balance

Theme for the week beginning 30 April

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #49 Connect with Nature whatever the weather.

Again we seem to be building on the recent weeks’ themes of the essential matters of life and the value of simple pleasures. This week we are reminded of the value of weathering seasons and connecting with nature to help us.

Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook is:

Connect with Nature no matter what your internal or external season is.

I drew this card immediately after writing in my morning pages:

Monday morning, wet, windy, rainy, but off for a swim soon because I like to keep moving and I love it. I love all the conditions and changing circumstances. Reflects my life really, moving through different weather and changing circumstances.

This week’s guidance is about weathering seasons of life and how we choose to move through them. Even the conditions that are out of our control.

It’s about connecting with nature and other practices that keep us grounded in changing times. Remembering that different weather, seasons and change are all a natural part of life helps us to flow with it all rather than fight it. Another aspect of wholehearted living, we can choose to live in the moment of whatever season we are experiencing. We can also make choices to help us navigate challenging times more consciously and with skill and balance.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 30 April

Tarot Narrative:

It’s time to remember the value of weathering the seasons and circumstances with skill and balance. All you have been through, the changing times are full of lessons and learning. Focus on the broader canvas of shifting from one season to another. Remember the larger scale, the deeper riches, and the cycle of the month, the year – how life moves through highs and lows, successes and challenges. Weather it all with skill and grace and work on yourself, your projects, as an anchor through changing times.

Cards: Three of Pentacles and Four of Pentacles from The Art of Life Tarot and #38 To Be Fair from Wisdom of the Oracle.

Book notes:

But it is in the present–not in the past, and most certainly not in the future–that we are able to see the landscape, to feel the range of our humanity, to travel every uncomfortable mile.

Dani Shapiro, Still Writing

Seasons can be actual, physical times of the year or they can be seasons of creativity and life. Whatever season we are moving through, a key element of the art of wholehearted living is to be present. As Dani Shapiro reminds us, it is about being present to our experience that helps us weather circumstances.

We often can’t control what happens to us. All we can control is our response and attitude to it. And a great way to manage that is to be present and mindful. Connecting with nature helps us do that. Practices like swimming, walking, yoga, writing, running – all help us do that. Working out what can support you to be in the moment is an important part of weathering seasons of life and creativity.

Weathering seasons of life and creativity

The Three of Pentacles is a favourite card here at Quiet Writing. I referenced it when I launched Quiet Writing Coaching where I talked about coaching as co-creation. Today it pops up again to remind us of the work we are doing over time. As Ralph Waldo Emerson says on The Art of Life Tarot Three of Pentacles card:

The reward of a thing well done is to have it done.

The Three of Pentacles focuses on mastery, craft, long-haul creativity, teamwork and weathering circumstances to get our larger work done in the world. I think of it as the “building a cathedral” card as Jessa Crispin suggests in The Creative Tarot. Many versions of the card show a major building undertaking, taking measurements, working out the architecture and structure, bringing the pieces together.

It makes me think of weathering seasons in larger creative projects or life practices. Examples that came to mind are:

Completing NaNoWriMo and writing 50,000 words in a month
Swimming and learning to swim in different weather and circumstances
Tarot work and learning this skill over time, sharpening my intuition

Any aspects of life really where we are digging deep to weather seasons and circumstances, get projects done or deal with major life issues like grief and illness.

Jen Carrington is also a proponent of wholehearted living and talks about living and working in seasons of hustle, struggle and rest. I love Jen’s thoughts on this and how we can make choices and modulate our way through, whatever season we are in.

Connecting to what matters

The Four of Pentacles card reminds us to connect with what matters, echoing last week’s message. Just as the quote on The Art of Life Tarot card reminds us (from Oscar Wilde above), the real riches are more than the material things of life. We are reminded to loosen up, let go, not get so focused on the material. We can worry so much about these things and lose joy in the process.

The Wisdom of the Oracle card To Be Fair also reinforces the message of the changing circumstances of life:

Life is a pendulum swinging between all of these states…remember all experiences have their place.

As Jen Carrington reminds us, there are times of hustle (eg working on big projects, moving forward), struggle (eg facing challenges, overwhelm) and rest (eg slowing down, pausing projects). We can be mindful of these seasons and we can mix them up a little. And we can find practices to help us navigate these seasons more successfully, whether they are of our choosing or not.

Weathering or living by seasons

The big learning for me has been to honour nature as a great leveller and teacher at times of challenge.

I know I mention swimming a lot, but that’s because it has been such a mainstay at a time of challenge. It helps me notice the seasons, the weather and reflect on moving through, being present. I meditate as I swim, noticing the fish and sand, letting all the jumbled thoughts settle as I breathe and move.

Likewise walking on the beach or in the bush enables us to interact with the weather but also reflect and be present. Being present to how we are living and choosing to live helps us to weather seasons of life and creativity in a calmer way.

And I’ve learnt that the tougher the going gets, the more I need to swim, walk, read and write, the anchors of wholehearted self-leadership in my life. It’s so easy to give them up when times get hard. But that is exactly what we need to be doing as a form of self-care. Your particular loves and skills will be different but whatever they are, honour them to keep present, fair and balanced in your life.

It’s a great week for reflecting on weathering seasons in our life and creative projects.

How are we moving through, how are we nourishing ourselves, how are we staying present in the midst of challenge?

Building the big works of our lives takes all seasons and learning to manage them. Take some time to journal on your weathering of seasons and creativity and see where you can strengthen your response to changing times.

Love to hear your thoughts!

I’d love to how you are weathering seasons in your life and creativity.

How are you taking the longer and larger scale view and building a cathedral?
What practices make a difference in weathering seasons of different types in your life?
How are you staying present to enjoy life’s riches even if there are tough times around you?

All best wishes for this week of weathering seasons by focusing on navigating change and conscious choices in how we respond.

May you find joy in the richer dimensions of life that may take more time to build and withstand. And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

Simple pleasures can make a world of difference

April 23, 2018

In the midst of grime and despair, the smallest act becomes unspeakably beautiful.

The Steampunk Tarot, Six of Cups

A Quiet Writing deep-dive Tarot Narrative each Monday to share intuitive guidance, wisdom and insights from aligned books – for the week and anytime…

This week: simple pleasures and acts make a world of difference

Theme for the week beginning 23 April

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #38 Discover simplicity through the senses

This week builds on last week’s theme of the essential matters of life and of the heart and remembering what really matters. This week, we focus on the value of simple pleasures – through the senses, memories, remembered joy or gifts and thoughts from the heart. Often ephemeral and fleeting, we are reminded of the power of simple pleasures like laughter, sunshine, flowers, music and play. Engaging with our senses to heal, connect and ground ourselves is especially highlighted this week. And we reminded that these simple pleasures can make a world of difference to us and to others at critical times.

Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook is:

Though you are infinitely complex, find serenity and peace through simple things.

Challenging times can make us get overwhelmed. But how many times do we find that it is simple pleasures like hearing a song we love, a gift of flowers or a walk on the beach can be just what we need to connect with ourselves and settle.

This week’s guidance is about remembering the value of simple pleasures and how they activate our senses. Music, scent, candles, feeling our feet on the ground whatever the surface, remembered joyful moments and the connecting value of simple pleasures and gifts are all highlighted this week.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 23 April

Tarot Narrative:

In the space between endings and beginnings, in the space between darkness and light, there’s an opportunity for simple pleasures to light the way forward. Remembered joy, getting back to what you love, a smile, a small word or gift, flowers, the pleasure of the senses being fired by an offering. Where you or someone else is vulnerable, simple pleasures, moments and memories can light the way to a new cycle.

Reading notes:

Cards: Six of Cups and The World from The Steampunk Tarot and #33 Chaos and Conflict in protection (reversed) position from Wisdom of the Oracle.

(Love The Steampunk Tarot deck – not a new deck but new to me and deck interview coming soon here!)

Book notes:

I’m reading Liz Fenwick’s The Returning Tide right now. I’m linking this book here because the experience of reading this novel is one of finding joy. This is through the act of reading, losing myself in a novel and also in my mind going to lovely Cornwall where it is set. That remembered joy of being in Cornwall is stirring as I read. It’s a special place for me and even the names of places – Helford, Falmouth, Boscawen – all create strong feelings. I would love to be there for a long time to explore its joys. Unfortunately, I can’t get there right now. But I have my memories of going there and this story which brings them alive.

The story also is one of how simple joys get complicated in life as events overtake. In this case, wartime experiences make life and especially relationships challenging. Liz Fenwick takes us through the journey of a family where joy and simple pleasures seem buried in layers of circumstance. It’s powerful to reflect on in the light of our own story and how we respond to what is happening.

So this story and the simple, sensual pleasures of reading a much-loved author in the warm sunshine of a balmy Sydney autumn have been sustaining and joyful of late. And if you haven’t read Liz Fenwick, do read her fabulous novels.

Simple pleasures and remembered joy

In last week’s tarot narrative, the Five of Cups reminded us it’s helpful to feel any pain fully as we move through it. If we don’t, we can miss valuable lessons.

The Six of Cups steps in to remind us of some practical tricks in moving through challenges. This card speaks of the value of small acts of beauty – gifts of time, thoughtful acts, flowers, moments of simple pleasure like reading in the sun. We are reminded to engage our senses – to feel, see, hear, taste and smell.

The Five of Cups focuses on sorrow, lost opportunity and regrets. The Six of Cups dwells in the hope and peace of life’s simple pleasures now and as positive memories.

The World card reinforces this via the World Dancer surrounded by symbols of the four elements: air, fire, water and earth. The world is open for us to engage with if only we lift our eyes from our pain or circumstance. There is joy in simple pleasures, even if life throws up some curve balls we hadn’t anticipated.

The Chaos and Conflict card says there is an opportunity for simple pleasures to become moments of real insight. The guidebook says:

Even in the seeming chaos, there is a kind of Divine order, a complete re-sorting of the elements.

We need to open ourselves to this.

Last week’s message was: We can focus on the dark clouds or we can focus on the light coming through. This week’s message is to seek light in simple pleasures and allow solutions and healing to evolve through these spaces.

We so often want to fix situations for ourselves and others. But often the simplest acts of self-care like reading, taking photographs or a walk on the beach at sunset can create answers.

Engaging in simple pleasures to heal

One of the big learnings for me going through extreme life experiences in the past 18 months has been the power of self-care and simple pleasures.

It’s important to know what lights us and others up and to do this. Here are a few of my favourites:

reading a great book – a novel by a favourite author or non-fiction book in an area I love
a cup of tea
a walk on the beach especially at sunset
a swim in the ocean
taking photographs as I walk and notice
flowers especially natives growing amongst wildness
green ferns and mosses
water flowing – fountains, rivers, cascades, waves
succulents and their quirky ways
listening to favourite songs, revisiting songs I’ve loved (this week: ‘State of Independence’ by Donna Summer!)
the feel of our companion animals’ softness as they sit close by
being inspired and learning through listening to podcasts (today, Discussing Jung’s Studies in Astrology by Liz Greene)
the smiles and laughs of special friends and family members
seeing healing occur in loved ones
breathing in and out and really feeling it move inside me
remembering the joy of holidays and places I love even if I can’t be there now
working with tarot and oracle cards
writing morning pages, feeling my hand move across the page
handling crystals, enjoying their texture and energy

What simple pleasures work to bring you joy even if life is tough?

How can you bring joy to someone else through the simplest pleasures of life?

It’s a great week for steeping ourselves in self-care and care of others through simple pleasures. Filling our well through our senses and remembering joyful moments can be the passport to healing and the bridge to new insights.

Love to hear your thoughts!

I’d love to hear what is working for you as you focus on the simple pleasures of life this week.

All best wishes for this week of moving through challenges by focusing on self-care and care of others through celebrating simplicity, the senses and remembered joy.

May you find joy in the simple things of life and may this make a difference for you and yours. And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

You can work with me to help tap into that inner wisdom and magic guidance. Free 30-45 minute coaching consults chats are available in April for a May coaching start so please get in touch at terri@quietwriting.com to talk further. I’d love to be a guide alongside to help you conduct creativity and magic with spirit and heart in your own unique way.

You can download my free 95-page ebook on the 36 Books that Shaped my Story – just sign up with your email address in the box to the right or below. You will also receive updates from Quiet Writing and its passions. This includes personality type, coaching, creativity, writing, tarot and other connections to help express your unique voice in the world.

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

transcending

A mystical interlude, which resonates in the heart, can remind us of our spirituality and our connectedness to each other. This is why it is meaningful to take heed.

Reading Mystical Interludes II

Ordinary people’s extraordinary stories

Overwhelming openness to experience

Extraordinary encounters of ordinary people

Connecting with Mystical Interludes

Leadership in telling stories

Book Giveaway

Thought pieces + footnotes

About Emily Rodavich

Reading Mystical Interludes II

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Keep in touch + read the books that shaped my story

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NOTEs are an important aspect of the human experience that help point towards and awaken the desire, curiosity, and courage to explore more of what life could be.

So what are NOTEs?

What is the power of NOTEs?

The landscape of NOTEs

Working and transforming with NOTEs

The experience of reading The Power of NOTEs

Connecting with the power of NOTEs

Book Giveaway

Thought pieces + footnotes

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Keep in touch + read the books that shaped my story

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Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.

Joy as my Word of the Year in 2018

Finding joy in travel

Joy and travel revisited

Joy, travel and family history

The joy of river cruising

And then to Vietnam

Find Your Word process + tools

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Keep in touch + read the books that shaped my story

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In each loss, there is a gain as in every gain there is a loss. And with each ending comes a new beginning.

Shao Lin via The Art of Life Tarot – Eight of Cups

Theme for the week beginning 7 May

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 7 May

Book notes:

It is the same with our minds and hearts. For our very self is the one window we have into this life. And so often, we suffer the mood of a dirty window, believing the brilliant world gray.

Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening (for May 7)

Opening your heart

Inspiration of a different kind

Details, endings and beginnings

Love to hear your thoughts!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Share this:

Like this:

Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.

Oscar Wilde via The Art of Life Tarot – Four of Pentacles

Theme for the week beginning 30 April

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 30 April

Book notes:

But it is in the present–not in the past, and most certainly not in the future–that we are able to see the landscape, to feel the range of our humanity, to travel every uncomfortable mile.

Dani Shapiro, Still Writing

Weathering seasons of life and creativity

Connecting to what matters

Weathering or living by seasons

Love to hear your thoughts!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Share this:

Like this:

In the midst of grime and despair, the smallest act becomes unspeakably beautiful.

The Steampunk Tarot, Six of Cups

Theme for the week beginning 23 April

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 23 April

Book notes:

Simple pleasures and remembered joy

Engaging in simple pleasures to heal

Love to hear your thoughts!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Share this:

Like this: